DavidCZ wrote:
Real pros always back up the photos immediately on the wedding day to multiple copies before the formal processing.

Sure. At my first opportunity after the wedding, I make a backup copy of the wedding pictures to a hard drive and then I make another copy of the pictures to be kept at a different physical location from the first copy, just in case disaster should strike the first copy. And this is all done before I do any editing to the images. Data security is step #1 with a pro.

I was 'discussing' (aka ranting) this with Tony Hart on Twitter last night.

Basically my take :

1. If not "having a photo to put on our wall" is SO important to you that not having one "has left a bitter taste in our mouths" so much that you don't even like to talk about the wedding, hire a fucking pro.

2. Not a single other of your guests was snapping away outside the church with their blackberry/iphone/CaNikon PowerCool S47832700 You DEFINITELY should have hired one of us, we would have PAID to be at the only wedding in 2012 where no other guest took some sort of camera with them.

3. Who the feck publically names and shames a friend like this because he made a stupid drunken mistake after something he did FOR FREE??

Chris Beaumont wrote:
I was 'discussing' (aka ranting) this with Tony Hart on Twitter last night.

2. Not a single other of your guests was snapping away outside the church with their blackberry/iphone/CaNikon PowerCool S47832700 You DEFINITELY should have hired one of us, we would have PAID to be at the only wedding in 2012 where no other guest took some sort of camera with them.

Hahaha, that made me laugh

Seriously though, the biggest FAIL was not to download it on a computer right away afterwards. I was doing this every single time BEFORE paid work.

I still have no idea why "cheap couple hire someone with no experience, get no/awful pictures" stories like this make it into the news, it even looks like they sent someone over to get a shot of them pouting with an empty frame showing they got what they paid for. Guess that two year trip to NZ was a lot more important.

1. That picture of the couple holding an empty frame is the funniest thing I've ever seen. I'd love to be the photographer who suggested that idea.

2. In the U.S. the guy would get sued for a million dollars.

3. When we see the threads about the average wedding photography fee being $2100, we need to remember that this (hiring people for cheap/free) happens ALL the time and that real pros can't get by charging fees that are just 'close to the average.'